Tag: blacksmith shop

Back in the early 80’s I spent a lot of time in Metal Shop and one of the things I thoroughly enjoyed heating metal up to red-hot and bashing it with a hammer. Now it is 30 years later and I have assembled the pieces to do blacksmithing again. The hardest item to find is the anvil which is described as “The only item the Blacksmith cannot make himself”. All other pieces of a blacksmith shop, such as hammers and tongs and even the forge can be made by the Blacksmith. I let people know I was looking for an anvil and after a couple of years my father-in-law called and let me know he saw an ad for an anvil, tongs, leg vise, hand crank fan and forge. It even included 400 lbs of coal. I hauled this collection of stuff from South Carolina to S.E. Michigan and now I have to figure out how to set it up someplace.

I’ve never had a hand crank blower before and am having trouble figuring this one out. This one says “Canedy Otto Mfg Co – Chicago Heights Ill USA” on one side and “Royal Western Chief H” on the other. I am uncertain the last time it was used but the handle turns freely. It also says something like “Keep filled with Oil” so I have to find out how much and what kind of oil. I’m going to try the forum at http://www.iforgeiron.com and see if I can get some help.

This next year I’ll be realizing a long time dream and have a blacksmith shop of my very own. Several years ago my father-in-law found someone selling a complete setup with an anvil, post vice, hand crank blower, a forge table and a collection of tongs plus 400 lbs of coal. However I was starting down the path of building my dream house on 10 acres so I had to put the blacksmith shop on hold. Now that I have the house (mostly) done I can start down the path of building my blacksmith shop. I’ll have to do some thinking about what size to make it and how to arrange things. Do I make it just big enough for blacksmithing or go for something bigger? Will I be staying with solid fuel and thus need to deal with the smoke or will I move over to a natural gas feed from the house? I don’t want to fall into analysis paralysis so I’m thinking of starting with a small structure with sheet metal sides, maybe a skid-able structure like Paul Wheaton is so fond of. Continue reading “Blacksmith – Setting Up Shop”